Pl. Javorskoho – monument to Stanislaw Jablonowski (does not exist)

ID:
99

The monument to the crown hetman, a Lviv citizen and defendant of Lviv
from the Tatars in 1695, was the oldest secular monument in the city. It was installed
in 1752-1754. Probably, its author was the sculptor Sebastian Fesinger. Originally,
it stood on the square near the Jesuit college, but it has changed its location
twice and disappeared under unknown circumstances after WW2.

History

Installed in 1752-1754, this monument was the first in Lviv to honor a
secular person. It is believed that it was installed by grateful Lviv citizens:
the crown hetman Stanisław Jabłonowski successfully managed the defense of the city from the Tatar army
in 1695. The probable author of the baroque statue was Sebastian Fesinger, a
famous sculptor (Biriulow, 2007, 14-15).

At first, the monument was set up near the Jesuit church, on what is now
pl. Yavorskoho. It is due to the fact that Jabłonowski had been a sponsor of
the Jesuit Order and was thus buried in the crypt of their church in 1702. After
the Austrian rule was established here in 1772 and, in particular, after the rearrangement
of the Jesuit monastery building into a court, the monument was removed, and
nothing was known about the statue for a long time. Around 1857, Hipolit
Stupnicki, a journalist and an expert in local history, found it and initiated
its restoration. After the restoration (approx. 1859) the monument was
installed on the central Lviv promenade, the place of the former defensive walls.
As a result, the street, named after the Austrian Archduke Karl Ludwig (ger. Karl Ludwig Strasse / pol. ulica Karla Ludwika), became known as Wały
Hetmańskie
(Hetman's Ramparts).

In 1932 the monument was transferred to its previous place, the
present-day pl. Yavorskoho. Thus, plac
Trybunalski was renamed into plac Jabłonowskiego.
After WW2, the monument disappeared under unknown circumstances. In 1980 a memorial sign,
in honor of the underground organization "Ivan Franko People's Guard,"
which operated in 1942-1944, was installed on this square. It was removed in
the early 1990s. The territory of this square today is mostly occupied by café
terraces during summers.

Architecture

The monument was made of white stone in Baroque style. The statue of Jabłonowski of a man's height stood on a pedestal with inscriptions on its
sides, and a coat of arms on its rear. The Hetman was depicted in ceremonial
armor and mantle, with a mace (the Hetman's attribute) in his right hand and
with his left hand holding his mantle. When the monument was located on the
Hetman Ramparts, it was surrounded by a Neo-Gothic cast metal fence.

On a photo
of the monument made in the 1860s-1870s, when there was no building of the
Industrial Museum (now the National Museum on prosp. Svobody,20), a mid-19th
century Neoclassicist housing can be seen behind the monument: the previous
building on prosp. Svobody,22, as well as two buildings which have not been
preserved. Today, their place is occupied by the so-called Vernissage.